A big first for our women's U18 7-aside national team

(Written by Amélie HAUSER, RC La Chaux-de-Fonds)***

With 11 other players, I had the privilege to participate in the Paris World Games, from 07. - 09.07.2017. A swiss women's U18 national 7's team was created for the first time to participate in this tournament.

The Paris World Games are a huge international tournament, which sees 650 teams participating in many different disciplines. In total, this sums up to 15'000 athletes from 60+ nationalities.

It was the first official event with our coach Célia as well as our manager Viola. Upon arrival, we met up with Malick (Tcha-Tchibara), the women's senior national 7's team coach. The spirit within the team constructed itself very quickly, and after the first joint training session on site, we knew exactly how to put each players' potential ahead.

The next morning, we played our first game against Île-de-France. We lost 46-0. This big loss was difficult to digest for some, but it helped us to progress further. We questioned ourselves and learnt from our mistakes. This helped us to win the next game against the Arab Emirates 20-0!

Thanks to this win, we qualified for the small final the next morning, against the selection from Atlantis Rugby. Although we put in huge efforts and had a great team spirit developed by this moment, we lost 50-0. This loss placed us on the 4th place (out of 7) overall. It was a fantastic experience which allowed me to learn a lot about rugby, my teammates, and myself.